Validation of a short physical activity recall questionnaire completed by Spanish adolescents

Self-report recall questionnaires are commonly used to measure physical activity in children and adolescents. However, they have been shown to have low to moderate validity, mainly due to inaccuracies in recall activity. The purpose of the present study was to determine the reliability and validity of an adapted version of the Assessment of Physical Activity Levels Questionnaire (APALQ) among a sample of Spanish adolescents. Test-retest reliability of the APALQ was assessed using a sample of 150 adolescents (72 males, 78 females), aged 13.6 +/- 1.1 years, who answered the APALQ twice within 7 days. Criterion validity was assessed using a sample of 77 adolescents (50 males, 27 females), aged 13.6 +/- 1.1 years, by comparing the APALQ against the Computer Science and Application (CSA) monitor. All participants were volunteers recruited from local schools in the Aragon region of Spain. Test-retest reliability for all items was high with intra-class coefficients of 0.77 for boys and 0.74 for girls. The APALQ demonstrated modest criterion validity with Pearson correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.53 between Physical Activity Index (PAI) and CSA minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity, and 0.47 between PAI and CSA steps per day. When the data were analysed by gender, girls had higher correlations than boys (P < 0.01). The Spanish APALQ seems to be a valid and reliable short self-report physical activity questionnaire.